With the Setting of the Sun
by A-Writing-Wren
Summary: Supercat soulmate au, red string of fate. Warning for major character death by old age. Kara reflects on the red string that had led her to so much joy in life, as the sun sets.


It's peaceful, here with Cat. Laying in their shared bedroom with only the late afternoon sunlight to light up the room. The only sounds the distant thrum of city life below them, their heartbeats, and their breathing. Cat's breathing is the long slow breathing of sleep. Her heartbeat soft but sure. She looks content, even if a stray hair is in danger of falling down to tickle her nose.

Kara brushes the offending lock of hair back, and trails her hand over Cat's cheek. The gesture provokes a sleepy smile but she doesn't wake. Colour catches Kara's eye as she completes the motion. The red string on her pinky grabbing at her awareness just as it has since she was a child.

 _Her mother and father hadn't understood at first, when she had told them about the red loop on her finger, and how it was attached to a string that disappeared into the sky. They assumed it was the product of an overactive imagination. Kara had gotten mad at them over that, until she realised that they couldn't see it. She had tried explaining it to them. The feel of it, the weight and pressure it put on her finger and how odd it was that those sensations never disrupted her movements._

 _Even on Krypton's last day they had seemed sceptical, but they had also been desperate. They had stumbled across Earth while helping uncle Jor-El with a project. Earth with it's survivable atmosphere, and it's yellow sun. Earth with it's inhabitants who looked so much like Kryptonians, and the stories they told of people tied to one another by strings on their fingers. So they had put her in a pod, and sent her away. Hoping that the string was real. Hoping it would guide Kara to safety, and to someone who would care for her._

Holding her hand straight up toward the ceiling, Kara tilted it this way and that, watching how the length of the string would sway with the changes of angle. She traced the red line down to where the slack trailed over Cat's body to where it was fastened to the pinky finger of Cat's left hand.

She had found her someone, but it had taken some time to get to her even after she had escaped the Phantom Zone.

 _Kara and Alex are laid out on their stomachs in the living room of the the Danvers, of Kara's, home, doing their homework, while Eliza catches up on some television. A burst of melodious laughter drags Kara's attention away from the painfully simplistic mathematics worksheet she's supposed to be filling out, and brings it to the screen the laughter had come from._

 _A woman with blonde hair, and inquisitive green eyes sits opposite two older men. She waves her hand as she speaks, to emphasise a point, and a flicker of red catches Kara's eye. Frowning she sits up, abandoning her work to watch the woman on the screen. She moves her hand again, and this time Kara can make out the red loop on her pinky._

" _Eliza," Kara had said quietly. Unsure she should ask. "People can only see the red string they are attached to, right?"_

 _It had been a relief to arrive on Earth and discover the string on her finger really did mean there was someone out there, just for her. It had been exhilarating to learn that not only did she have a soulmate, but that she was finally on the right planet to meet them. Her string no longer extended above the clouds, but now trailed along the ground and over the horizon, as she was told was normal._

" _That's right dear," Eliza had said, still mostly immersed in the interview taking place on the screen. "Why do you ask?"_

" _I can see her string."_

 _Both Eliza and Alex had turned to look at her then._

" _Whose string, sweetheart?"_

" _The lady, on the television, she has a string tied to her finger."_

 _Alex had sworn, then laughed, then sworn again. Eliza had frowned and scolded Alex for her language. Then she had asked, "are you sure?" as if it were the most important question in the world. Thinking back on the moment later, Kara supposed it might have been._

" _Well then that means Cat Grant is Kara's soulmate, right?" Alex had asked, shoving her homework to the side. "That's pretty amazing, Kar."_

" _It does, and it is," Eliza had agreed, her eyes flickering briefly to where Cat was still charming information out of her guests for the episode, before returning to her daughters. Her tone soft and warm as always, but there was a tightness around her eyes. Worry._

" _So, does that mean we'll be moving to National City, so they can meet?" Alex asked, grinning._

 _Kara had sat up a little straighter at this. She didn't know how successful she'd be keeping her secret in a place with a much larger population, but if it meant getting to meet her soulmate…_

" _Absolutely not!" Eliza exclaimed, the worry around her eye becoming much more pronounced. "That woman is more than twenty years older than Kara."_

" _She's also soulmate," Alex said, rolling her eyes._

" _Who lives in a city 10 times the size of Midvale. Kara still has trouble just going into town during the holiday season, how do you think she'd do in a city, that is bright lights and loud noises year round?"_

 _Alex hadn't had an answer for that one._

" _It's fine Alex." Kara had told her sister later that night as they walked up the stairs to their rooms. "Right now I'm still getting used to life on Earth, I wouldn't want to put her in danger by moving to the city and then messing something up."_

 _The words had felt heavy in her mouth. Weighed down with her guilt over Jeremiah's death. Alex had frowned like she wanted to argue the point, but couldn't seem to find the words to say._

 _Kara had hugged her at the top of the stairs, and then slipped into her room with a whispered goodnight. That she heard Alex return the sentiment as she slid into bed had just been more of a reminder that she was still too alien to go after something as normal as a soulmate._

Cat's brow always furrowed whenever the subject of how Kara had discovered her soulmate was Cat Grant, media queen, came up in conversation. She hated that Kara had talked about herself like she would have been a burden to Cat, or that her younger self would have been fundamentally unlikeable to Cat. She hated how the question was always phrased in a way that reinforced the idea that Kara was somehow lesser to Cat just because she hadn't also been a millionaire when they met, when the whole concept of soulmates centered around pairs being equal to one another.

"The whole point of the string is that it means we're soulmates, Kara," Cat would say, waving her pinky in Kara's face to show off the knot tied there. "I spent almost forty years with a string that went into the clouds, did you really think the fact that you're an alien, or that you're younger than me, would make me think twice after that?"

There was no furrowed brow now. No tightness around her eyes. Whatever she dreaming of as she slept, if she was dreaming at all, it was peaceful. The sun was lower in the sky now. Afternoon shifting into evening.

Cat's breathing was fainter, her heart beat slower. If she pushed her hearing to focus on the city around them Kara could still pretend it was just as strong as it had been before. She could pretend the only reason for the quietness in the room, was because the outside world was becoming louder.

The light caught in Cat's hair, making the light strands glow in comparison to the dimness of the room. There was something ethereal about it that reminded Kara of the day she had first met Cat.

 _It was another six years after Kara had first seen Cat on television that they finally met. It hadn't happened in a way Kara had ever imagined. It hadn't even happened in the city Kara had imagined. Instead of their eyes meeting on a crowded street in National City, they had been standing opposite each other at an altar. Both members of Lois and Clark's bridal party._

 _Everyone, Clark included, had been surprised when Cat had walked down the aisle with the rest of the bridesmaids. No one had expected it. Cat and Lois were forever playing up the idea that they were enemies in print, but after the vows and 'I do's' had happened, Lois and Cat flung themselves into a hug, just as soon as Lois had finished hugging her sister. Or so Alex had told Kara in an awed whisper later that night. At the time Kara had been engulfed in a bear hug from her big little cousin._

 _It hadn't been until later, during the wedding party photos that they had finally gotten a moment to talk to introduce themselves. They were stood off to the side, while Lois and Clark took a few shots alone, before the group photos. Cat had flicked her wrist sharply in a bid to gain her full attention, and for once they were close enough that Kara could feel a shadow of sensation in her finger as the string pulled. Kara hadn't been able to hide her delighted smile at the way Cat had literally pulled them together. Cat had given a self satisfied smirk in response._

 _She had been so beautiful standing there that Kara hadn't been able to summon any words. To be fair, Cat hadn't spoken either. They had stood there smiling for what could have been eternity, trying to engrave every detail about the others face to memory. It had been the flash from James' camera that had finally snapped them out of it. Cat being the first to recover._

" _Cat Grant," she said. Her voice low, and seductive. She held out a hand as she spoke. Whether it had been for Kara to shake, or to kiss, Kara still wasn't entirely sure, but she hadn't been given the chance to attempt either._

 _Cat's already 'ex' husband, Peter, had walked over, with a seven year old Carter in tow._

" _The ceremony part is over, and I have a business meeting to get to," he'd said ushering Carter to stand next to his mother, with a small push. "I can't stick around to babysit while you make eyes at the female groomsman."_

 _As far as Kara was concerned, Peter had never really managed to improve on the first impression he had given that day._

" _It's not babysitting when it's your child," Cat had hissed in response. It had been Kara's first glimpse of the 'take no prisoners' powerhouse Cat could be, and she had loved it._

 _Peter had muttered out a whatever, as if he were twelve and not forty five, and then clapped a hand on Carter's tiny shoulder by way of goodbye. Kara had found herself glaring after him, just the same as Cat as he left, but had stopped when she'd felt Cat's eyes cut to her._

 _When she'd turned back to Cat, she had found her hovering protectively behind her son. There had been fear of rejection clear in her eyes, and her posture. As if she was waiting for Kara to get angry at her for having a child before they had found one another. There had been determination there too, something like a warning, that she would chose her child over Kara._

" _And this is my son, Carter."_

 _Kara had, had no idea what to say in order to ease the fear in Cat's eyes, so she had done the first thing that came to mind instead._

 _Slowly and deliberately she had raised her stringed hand, and moved it in a broad circle so that the slack of the string between them looked as if it looped around Carter's shoulders. Kara had given a pleased nod with her handiwork before she looked Cat in the eye again._

 _They had been wide and glossed with tears. Cat clearly hadn't been expecting such ready acceptance._

" _It's nice to finally meet you both," Kara had said, proud that she hadn't stuttered. "I'm Kara Danvers."_

 _Cat had flung her arms around Kara's neck and kissed her for the first time, right then and there._

James had clicked a photo of that moment too. Kara kept both pictures from their first meeting in a fold out frame on the mantle. Cat would complain about there still being photographic evidence that she had worn one of Lois' hideous bridesmaid dresses, but Kara knew she loved it. She had caught her staring at it adoringly when she claimed to be dusting to be sure.

She kept a wider shot of their kiss on their bedside. It extended the frame just wide enough to show Carter staring at them in surprise. Something that was cute enough to warrant being on their bedside all on it's own. The real reason she kept it there however was because both she and Cat could see the string still looped around his shoulders, including him in their connection.

It had become their thing. Whenever they had a family photo they would loop their string around the others in the photo. Kara and Cat were the only ones that could see it in the printed photos but that was the point of it being _their_ thing. Tens of hundred of photos in dozens of albums with their family tied to them by choice.

Alex, her soulmate Maggie, and of course Eliza. Carter, and later their adopted daughter Linda. Carter and Linda's soulmates had joined the pictures too over the years. That had eventually led to two whole albums dedicated to the grandchildren they had brought into the world. Just last month they had even been lucky enough to add a photo of Carter's eldest, Henry, and Henry's newly found soulmate to the collection, the two blushing teenagers tied between Cat and Kara.

The sun was more than half set now. Just barely enough light filtering in to see the vibrant red of their string where it connected to her finger. Where the traffic down in the streets should have been louder, with people heading home for the day, it felt as if it were muted. The only sound that Kara really focused on was Cat's heart.

She couldn't look at Cat when the last beat finally faded from her ears. Instead she stared at her hand, tears streaming silently down her face.

She watched, with that detached interest that always seemed to come with seeing the consequences of a great loss unfold, the way the string faded from red to an ash like gray and then began to disintegrate. The particles of the string dissolved into the air until all that Kara was left with was a grey band around her pinky. A choking sob welled up inside of her, but she kept her hand steady.

Too afraid that if she moved it that the final remnants of her metaphysical attachment to Cat would float away into nothingness, just as the rest of the string had.


End file.
